Nicks, The Key To The Giants’ Offense, Is Close To Being 100 Percent

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — While everyone may be looking for Eli Manning to get back on track and right the New York Giants’ offense, the solution might be a little farther away from center.

The key may be wide receiver Hakeem Nicks and what he does for the Giants (6-4) against the Green Bay Packers (7-3) on Sunday night.

Nicks has been one of the major big-play components of the offense for the past three seasons, whether it’s catching the long ball or turning a short pass into a lot more. Over the past two seasons, he has caught 155 passes for 2,244 yards and 18 touchdowns. The former first-round draft pick added four more TDs in the Super Bowl run.

“All you have to do is look at what he did last year,” backup quarterback David Carr said. “You have Victor, and he is drawing a lot of double teams, but if you have another guy, like Hakeem, that draws the same type of double team, it’s kind of hard to stop the run and the other guys that we have. It makes it difficult for defenses.”

The Packers should know something about that. In the NFC semifinal in January, Nicks had seven catches for 165 yards and two of Manning’s three touchdowns. His biggest play was a 66-yard TD catch in the first quarter, but he also hauled in a 37-yard Hail Mary surrounded by defenders at the end of the first half in New York’s 37-20 win.

“It actually was a great weekend for me. It was a birthday weekend for me, too,” Nicks said.

Nicks said the pass at the end of half was the first time he had ever caught a heave into the end zone like that.

“It’s something we practice, end of half or end of game play,” Nicks said. “You know, you run to the landmarks and Eli throws it up and the jump man goes up and makes a catch. I just came down with it.”

That catch would put the Giants ahead by 10 points, and it seemed to deflate the Packers, who enter this week riding a five-game winning streak and tied with Chicago for the NFC North lead.

“I think it just lit the fire that we have within us,” Nicks said. “We know it’s (the playoffs) close enough within reach and we want to try our best to get that W, and we depend on each other to get it done.”

Coming off a bye, the Giants will have another advantage. They have spent a week self-scouting the offense, and there are bound to be tweaks that might surprise the Packers.

“We seem to play a lot of teams coming back from a bye,” Green Bay cornerback Tramon Williams said. “We don’t think it’ll change that much, but we definitely expect to see unscouted looks.”

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)